14th April, 2005

DAVID ADAMS

There were extraordinary scenes in Rome last week as millions converged on the "eternal city" to pay their last respects to Pope John Paul II.

The worldwide public outpouring of emotion was amazing to witness and in places such as his native Poland not surprising, given the Pope’s origins and the significant role he played in its liberation from communism.

And yet scenes of people rushing to be among the crowds gathered outside the Vatican, so desperate to be a part of history, reminded me of another funeral almost eight years before - that of Princess Diana in London.

In one sense, there are gulfs between the two events - the death of Princess Diana was the tragic end to a life characterised by sadness while the death of John Paul II represented a triumphal end to an extraordinary life.

Yet the deaths of both have provoked immense outpourings of public emotion and, in some quarters, a somewhat uncomfortable deification of the person being buried.

There is a danger inherent in this process of man-made sanctification. It completely ignores the fact that the person - whether it be Princess Diana or Pope John Paul II - was, at the end of the day a human complete (dare I say it?) with human failings.

(There’s a converse side to this as well - the process of demonisation. One need look no further than Prince Charles to see this in action; in an illustration of the point, one tongue-in-check letter-writer in a Melbourne newspaper this week described his and Diana’s story as “the sad tale of the Wicked Prince and the Divine Diana”. Sadly it was an all too apt description of public perception).

Don’t get me wrong, Pope John Paul II was a towering figure of the 20th century and a man who deserves our utmost respect for his influence on this world. His life speaks for itself.

But from what I have read of him, he would be the first to point out that he was simply a servant - a signpost if you like - pointing to the one true master, Jesus Christ. He was an extraordinary man, but a man nonetheless.

The fact that so many responded with such heightened emotion to his death only serves to highlight the need for meaning humanity has in its lives. That deep within all of us there is that God-shaped hole that we cannot fill. Not of ourselves and not with anything of this world.

In an uncertain age when tsunamis can snatch away hundreds of thousands of lives in an instant; when bombs can take away any hope that mankind can ever truly live in peace, men like Pope John Paul II offer certainty and strength.

But no matter how much we’d wish them to, they’ll never provide the sort of certainty we’re looking for. There is only one who can offer that. And He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

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